Archbishop of Wales Cherry Vann has said some of her parishioners left the church in protests over her being a gay and also leader of the church.

In an interview with BBC Wales on Tuesday, Archbishop Vann said “There are still patches all over the place where people continue to struggle with women in leadership and I have to respect that.”

“The Church in Wales is working hard to welcome LGBT+ people, but also I respect that there are people in the Church in Wales who find that really difficult. Some, sadly, have felt the need to leave and I take that very seriously,” Ms Vann said.

In July, Ms Vann, emerged as UK’s first female Archbishop and first openly gay archbishop in the world.

She polled two-third majority of votes by her fellow bishops to emerge, following the retirement of her predecessor, Andrew John.

Speaking about how people have responded to her emergence, she said, “It’s hard to hear some of the things that people say, but I think it’s important that there is the space for them to say that.

She added, “I don’t want people to feel shut down or silenced just because I hold a different view. But it does nevertheless hurt because it feels like an attack on who I am and who God has made me to be. We have to find a way as a Church to respect one another’s views and find a commonality in our faith in Christ, despite our differences.”